Contents

Development

Name

Battra's name most likely comes from the common Japanese practice of shortening two words to make one; in this case the combination of the Japanese spelling of Battle Mothra (バトルモスラ, Batoru Mosura?), as described in the Super Godzilla video game manual. Battra is also referred to as the "Black Mothra" (黒いモスラ, Kuroi Mosura?) at one point by the Cosmos in Godzilla vs. Mothra.

Appearance

Like Mothra, Battra has both larva and imago forms. Battra's imago form has a predominately black body with very large wings that have patterns of red, black and yellow. He also has yellow horns on his head, six legs, and red eyes which glow purple when firing his beam, as well as a red line which runs down his body's sides.

His larval form is mostly black but with a lot of yellow and a dark red underside. He also has a giant horn, similar to Destoroyah's, which is yellow and glows when he uses his beam attacks, and two tusks on each cheek. Battra's larval form also has bigger, more powerful legs than Mothra's larval form, which are yellow and horn-like. Much like his imago form, his eyes are red. Battra's larval form is also, physically, much larger than Mothra's, being almost as large as Godzilla himself.

Roar

Battra's roar is a very slightly edited Rodan roar. However, in the Godzilla Island episodes "Return Junior!" and "Heaven and Earth", Battra's roar is actually a Mothra roar at a lower pitch.

Personality

Battra is solely concerned with the defense of the Earth, and will do whatever he can to protect it. Unlike Mothra, Battra sees humanity as a blight on the Earth that must be destroyed if the planet is to survive. Battra has made it his mission to eradicate the human race, which puts him into conflict with Mothra.

Origins

According to the Cosmos, Battra was created by the Earth itself twelve thousand years ago, when an ancient civilization created a climate-controlling device, which greatly angered the Earth. Battra's purpose was to destroy the device, but he went well beyond his purpose and eradicated the entire civilization, intending to wipe out all of the human race as well. Mothra challenged Battra and defeated him, sealing him in the North Sea.

History

Thousands of years after being sealed in the North Sea by Mothra, Battra was awakened by a meteorite in Siberia. Battra swam to the coast of Japan and burrowed, reappearing and attacking Nagoya. The J.S.D.F. fought Battra but were no match, and Battra left a wrecked city behind as he burrowed again. Battra appeared in the waters off the archipelago of the Philippines, where Godzilla and Mothra were battling. Battra engaged Godzilla, who was the bigger threat.

The two monsters battled down to the sea floor in the Philippine Trench, where a volcanic eruption supposedly killed them. But Battra and Godzilla lived on, appearing near Mount Fuji, with Godzilla exiting the erupting volcano and Battra emerging from the ocean's depths. Upon metamorphosing from his larval form, he flew to Yokohama to exact his revenge on Mothra. The sinister moth seemed to have an upper hand against his less violent counterpart, but soon, in the heat of the battle, Godzilla appeared, and began to relentlessly attack Mothra, nearly killing her several times. Noticing this, Battra intervened, and rescued his counterpart. After a brief conversation between the two moths, Mothra and Battra teamed up to combat Godzilla together in defense of both Earth and humankind.

Once Godzilla was defeated, Battra and Mothra carried him out to sea. However, Godzilla, still conscious, killed Battra by tearing out his throat, then attacking him with an atomic ray at point-blank range while he was being transported. Godzilla and Battra dropped into the ocean below. Mothra then flew in a circle and placed a seal over the final resting place of Battra, honoring his sacrifice. It was later discovered that an asteroid was travelling towards Earth. Battra would have traveled into space to destroy the asteroid, but because he was killed by Godzilla, Mothra had to make the journey instead, and departed Earth's atmosphere to begin the vital mission to save the Earth.

Abilities

Flight speed

In his imago form, Battra had lost the ability to burrow or swim, but attained flight at mach 3 speed with its new wings, allowing for an easier and more efficient form travel for further destruction.

Larval horn

In this form, he wielded a massive, yellow horn which could be put to use as a battering ram or bludgeoning weapon. From the horn, he was also capable of firing off furious, electrical blasts of an orange-yellow color.

The titanic larva could also create energy pulses from his massive horn as another form of attack.

In the manga adaptation of Godzilla vs. Mothra, the dark imago can unleash damaging energy spheres from his horn, discharge energy through the stinger-like attachment on his tail, and instantly form his cocoon which also acts as a defensive shield.

Powder

In Godzilla Island episode 166 "Baby Mothra Awakes," Battra can also emit powder from his wings just like Mothra except that the powder is red instead of yellow like Mothra's.

Physical strength

He also had developed three pairs of legs and would utilize them for grasping objects. While in his imago form, Battra sports yet more enhanced strength, being able to grab and throw large objects such as the Cosmo Clock 21 with ease when working together with Mothra. The imago form of Battra could also release an "energy shock" from its feet in order to subdue foes while in close combat.

Prism Beams

The once-prominent horn had disappeared and had been replaced with three, smaller horns. These horns were incapable of releasing energy beams, anymore, but Battra had developed more powerful optic beams, known as "Prism Beams". Unlike the beams used in his larval form, the adult Battra had complete control over the Prism Beams, which also are far more powerful in this form.

Purple energy blasts

He could fire similar, electrical blasts of a purple color from his crimson eyes. However, these beams would often fly wildly about, Battra not appearing to have any precise control over their direction.

Video games

In Godzilla: Unleashed, Battra is a model-swap of Mothra, and has the same attacks in his imago form, with his prism beams substituted for Mothra's antenna beams. However, in larva form, Battra can fire beams from his Eyes. Like Mothra larva, Battra larva's energy can only be replenished if he hits a yellow crystal, but he regenerates energy normally in imago form.

Battra is a subspecies of Mothra born out of the Earth to prevent environmental pollution.

12,000 years ago, Battra was a god of destruction who laid waste to an ancient civilization attempting to change the earth's environment. At that time, it was sealed up in the North Sea by Mothra, but it was later reawakened in the 20th century to help the Earth evade collision with a giant meteor. Among the ruins on Infant Island, there is a wall painting that portrays Battra and Mothra as being family born from the same egg. While Battra shares the same biology as Mothra in that it can morph from a larva to an imago, its personality is much more aggressive.

While Battra is an insect monster like Mothra, the production team felt that there wouldn't be enough variety in the action scenes if they were both controlled by wires, so it was decided to give Battra a full-body larva costume instead. Two types of imagoes with wingspans of 1 meter and 3.5 meters respectively, both with radio-controlled movement built in.

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— Battra Kaiju Guide bio

Battra appears exclusively in the PlayStation 4 version of the 2014 Godzilla video game as a playable monster, in both his larva and imago forms.

Comics

Battra's egg is first discovered by the twins Minette and Mallory in Kingdom of Monsters #3. Using telepathic powers, the girls kill the soldiers watching the egg, claiming that they can hear the being inside it "singing." The creature hatches, to whom they call Battra, and the monster becomes their bodyguard as they rob an almost entirely deserted Paris. The girls dub themselves the new queens of Paris, as Battra wraps itself in a cocoon. When he emerges in his adult form, he fights Rodan until both are controlled by the twins. They head to where Godzilla, MechaGodzilla, and King Ghidorah are brawling, as the twins want to control Godzilla next. This results with Battra and Rodan fighting Godzilla, but Godzilla defeats them both.

Battra was seen in a flashback after the alien spaceship crashed into the Earth, sending all of Earth's monsters into hibernation, burrowing into the ground. Both larva and imago Battra were seen as part of the 'fire' monsters on the Infant Island cave mural, along with Megalon and Baragon.

Battra returns in issue #19, where the psychic twins Minette and Mallory summon him to rescue them from a military plane. After Battra rescues the twins, they order him to attack Infant Island and kill Mothra. Battra arrives on the peaceful tropical island and devastates it with his prism beams. Mothra, still wounded from her previous battle with Destoroyah, attempts to fight Battra off but is easily beaten by her dark counterpart. Knowing her end is near, Mothra buys time for the Shobijin to escape with her twin larvae by surrounding Battra with reflective scales. After the larvae and the Shobijin escape to the ocean, Battra finishes Mothra off with his prism beams, causing all of Infant Island to erupt in a fiery explosion.

Some time later, Battra traveled to the Monster Islands in order to hunt down Mothra's surviving larvae just when the Trilopods arrived. The Trilopods took this opportunity to copy Battra's powers. Much later, Battra and King Caesar cross paths, and the same result happens again. Oddly enough, despite witnessing the Trilopods carry King Caesar away, Battra made no attempt to help Godzilla when he roared for help.

Battra reappeared in issue five of Godzilla: Oblivion where he was briefly seen emerging from the ocean in his imago form.

In other languages

Russian: Батра

Trivia

Within Godzilla vs. Mothra, there is a continuity discrepancy involving Battra that deserves mention. In the film, the Cosmos explain Battra's origins and his defeat at the hands of Mothra. They state that Battra's body was deposited in the Northern Sea. Thousands of years later, in 1993, Battra emerges, in his larval form, from his Siberian ice prison and departs the Northern Sea, heading for Japan. However, the cave painting on Infant Island clearly depicts an imago Battra in combat with Mothra. This raises several questions about the nature of Battra himself, including a possibility of the Battra from 12,000 years ago being a different Battra altogether, and the 1993 Battra being a second creature created by Earth's life force, probably from the remains of the original Battra. If they are, in fact, the same creature, then the fact that it emerges 12,000 years after his defeat, once again in his larval form is a contradiction. It is possible that Battra can revert back to larva form at will.

Battra is the only new monster Godzilla fought in the Heisei series whose origin is not at all influenced by or related to Godzilla at all, instead being connected to Mothra.

In Super Godzilla, when the first Battra is defeated and Godzilla arrives to deal with the second Battra, Battra is said to be in an cocoon state, but the cocoon resembles a Battra larva.